Cellular communications systems typically provide interconnect and/or dispatch voice communication services. Interconnect voice communication services are those typically provided by most cellular carriers as circuit-switched communications. Dispatch communication services are commonly known as a walkie-talkie type of call such as the dispatch call service marketed by Sprint Nextel Corporation under the trade name Direct Connect.
One distinguishing characteristic of dispatch communications compared to interconnect communications is immediacy. Specifically, dispatch calls can be setup between a source and destination much quicker than interconnect calls. Typically, a dispatch call is initiated by a user depressing a push-to-talk (PTT) button on, or connected to, a mobile station (e.g. a dispatch-capable cellular phone). The requesting mobile station then sends a call request, via a dispatch network, to the intended recipient mobile station. If the recipient mobile station is powered on, it will send an acknowledgment back to the requesting mobile station via the dispatch network. The requesting mobile station will then indicate to the user of the requesting mobile station that the user may begin speaking while depressing the PTT call button. The resulting call is half-duplex. That is, at any time during the call, one mobile station may be transmitting while the other mobile station is receiving. After a mobile unit is finished transmitting, it sends an end-of-transmission (EOT) signal to the other mobile unit, indicating that the channel is open and that the other mobile unit may begin transmitting.
The characteristics of a dispatch network (e.g. capacity, propagation delay, bandwidth, cell coverage, etc.), as well as the dispatch hardware, are currently tested in part by manually pressing and releasing the PTT call button on a dispatch mobile station, causing the dispatch mobile station to transmit, through the dispatch network, dispatch call requests, voice data or EOT signals to one or more target dispatch mobile units. The PTT call button press and release times are compared to the reception times of the resulting transmission by the target dispatch mobile units. This method of testing can be costly, unreliable, and prone to human error since it requires a person to manually press and release the PTT call button and record the times at which it is pressed or released. Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved approach to testing dispatch hardware and/or dispatch network functionality.